They would ask me what actors I saw in the roles. I would tell them, and they’d say “Oh that’s interesting.” And that would be the end of it.
--Elmore Leonard, in 2000, on the extent of his input for Hollywood's adaptation of his novels

Sunday, February 4, 2018

Laurie Gwen Shapiro's "The Stowaway"

Laurie Gwen Shapiro has most recently written articles for publications including The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The Daily Beast, Slate, Aeon, Los Angeles Review of Books, and has her own history column focusing on unsung heroes for The Forward. Shapiro is also a documentary filmmaker who won an Independent Spirit Award for directing IFC’s Keep the River On Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale and an Emmy nomination for producing HBO’s Finishing Heaven.

The stowaway: Billy Gawronski—a skinny, first generation New York City high schooler desperate to escape a dreary future in the family upholstery business—who in 1928 jumped into the Hudson River and snuck aboard a ship headed to Antarctica, the planet’s final frontier.

Here Shapiro dreamcasts an adaptation of her new book:

In 1928 Admiral Byrd was still Commander Byrd. He left for Antarctica at the young age of 38, strong but slight, very handsome – a true heartthrob for many. Leonardo DiCaprio or Emile Hirsch for Byrd?

And Billy could go to Ansel Elgort? That‘s the first person that comes to mind. He looks like him a bit even. But maybe you have to go even younger like one of the kids on Stranger Things, like Finn Wolfhard.

“Compared to a novel, a film is like an economy pizza where there are no olives, no ham, no anchovies, no mushrooms, and all you’ve got is the dough.”
--Louis de Bernières, author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin